This has already led to a savings of 1.43 billions kilograms of C02 emissions. However, early successes in rolling out the clean energy program . This year, Dutch commuters ditched fossil fuels to power their country's trains on 100% wind energy - and it's a grand idea that's catching on the world over. However the electricity is delivered to the train, once its there, it is used to power lights, and air-conditioning, as well as the traction motors, which are what turn the trains wheels. What is clear is that most of those electrons didnt originate from wind turbines. http://www.djtelectricaltraining.co.uk/downloads/50Hz-Frequency.pdf. BBC News. TL;DR Dutch trains run on natural gas and coal power, not wind power. The point about this is that it is just PR. World-famous for their picturesque windmills, the Netherlands has always had a love affair with wind energy. You are not really concerned about the energy bills of the poor. http://www.litgrid.eu/index.php/sistemos-duomenys/79. The first two are feel good justifications that have no practical impact. Because Eneco, which contracts to supply NS with wind power, gets a Guarantee of Origin from the exporter under which the exporter confirms that the power came from wind and assigns the rights to it to NS. Their original goal was to transition the trains to 100 percent renewable energy by 2018, but that target was moved up after reaching 75 percent in 2016. Deregulation Is Still Wrong for Consumers. If not, Im sure their stranded customers would be happy to explain it to them. If its a less busy line, some of the electricity is stored in batteries on the train. Random House Canada. It`s a scam. Built 1992 this nearshore wind farm had just 4 Nedwind 500 KW turbines based 1km to shore. This is a BETA experience. [61] A further 228 MW of installed capacity will be added when completed. As of January 1, all electric passenger trains on the Dutch rail network have been run on wind energy, according to a statement from operator NS (via EcoWatch ). The Netherlands currently has a total of 2,200 wind turbines across the country, according to DutchNews.nl. One windmill running for an hour can power a train for 120 miles, the companies said. Why cant, errr sorry, why Dont you? Still don't like the disingenious advertisement thought. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. An Eneco and NS joint website. The trains cant run as advertised on weak and intermittent wind power, and there is only one plug on the wall. Thus, all of NE has the same energy mix, i.e., there is not one mix for VT, another for NH, or one mix for the Netherlands, another for Germany. It seems that NS may be outsourcing costs as well as power. According to LJ Electrical only 2,231km of NSs total 3,223km of track is electrified): Figure 2: The Netherlands railway network. Produced at least 8 models with power outputs of 100, 250, 500, 1000kW. If a energy supply company contracts with a renewable provider ( I am not including nuclear sources) would it be based on the installed power of the wind farms or a capacity factor adjusted power capabilities? Wind power now supplies about 10% of Belgiums electricity, so power imported from the Belgian grid will be about 10% wind. NS is the main public train in the Netherlands. There are many reasons, of course, why NS would claim its trains run completely on wind power and even more reasons why many would celebrate this apparently breakthrough. A little more than a tenth of all electricity consumed in the Netherlands comes from wind power, some of which is imported. EDF was 13.44p but I keep reading comments about how RE fans should take electricity only from PV and wind turbines, so I decided I should do the same. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. There are very little poor people in Germany., http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/high-costs-and-errors-of-german-transition-to-renewable-energy-a-920288.html, The Spiegel FUD wont cut it. Companies that want to claim that they run on green energy then just have to buy enough GoOs to cover their energy demand. French people are bricoleurs they like to build their own house, thanks to the fact that if it has a surface below 175 m2 you dont need to go through an architect, you can do your own building plan. . As of January 1, all trains in the Netherlands now run entirely on wind power (that is to say electricity generated by wind farms, not masts and sails). http://electronicdesign.com/power/google-s-renewable-energy-plan-what-it-seems, Telling fibs has become so fashionable that everyone and his train or server wants to be in on it. You may opt-out by. [62], Installed land-based wind capacity (MW) by. Half of this electricity comes from the Netherlands, and the other half is imported from Sweden, Finland, and Belgium. Active 2016. The Netherlands imports wind power basically because its falling behind its EU renewable energy targets. Whats the trick? Roger, that map isn`t quite updated. It is reportedly due to the early completion of some of these farms that enabled the 100% wind target to be reached one year in advance. First some details on the Netherlands electricity sector. Figure 1: The Netherlands generation mix 2000-2013. The Eneco Luchterduinen wind farm was officially opened in September 2015 and is a 50/50 joint venture between Dutch energy company Eneco and Japan's Mitsubishi corporation. Great post. How Dutch and German train and bus firms are taking British taxpayers for a ride, Solar panel researchers investigate powering trains by bypassing grid, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 2009. As of Jan. 1, 600,000 daily train passengers have been traveling completely carbon neutral, according to an announcement from the Netherlands principal passenger railway operator, NS. "Exploiting wind power in Holland." Yeap. Acquired by Lagerway in 1998. The energy comes from new wind farms in the Netherlands and surrounding countries - and it's a lot. So that is coal fired power not going into the Netherlands grid. NS and Eneco first announced their plan of a wind-powered railway in 2015 in order to drastically slash train ride emissions. All wind amd solar energy gets a hefty FIT tariff in the Netherlands, intended to guarantee profitability of the energy investment over the long term (even if the electricity market price goes negative, for example). They arent directly powered by wind. RE fans should understand that present mainstream RE technologies ( mostly PV and wind) require considerable real estate and in our small island one cannot travel very far without having a wind farm in view. (Figure 2: Note the dotted lines showing non-electrified track. The best of EcoWatch right in your inbox. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. If you want to be generous to NS, you can say that the BritNed interconnector is definitely being fed by the coal fired Maasvlakte power stations when it is delivering 1GW to the UK, because theyre right next door to the HVDC converters. Ah, so they're contracted for wind energy offset, not 100% wind energy powered. Heating with electricity is their homemade problem that escalates bills for the poor with no alternative. According to Statistics Netherlands, gross electricity generation was approximately 110 billion kilowatthours (BkWh) in 2015. Just fit smart controls where their systems draw power from the grid. Not relevant here. [3], In March 2022, the Dutch government announced that by 2030 offshore wind was to become the Netherlands' biggest power source, aiming at 21 GW of installed capacity.[4]. When you dont know reality and cant speak German you have to believe what you find on the English writing interwebs . Claims that Dutch trains running entirely on wind power are way off track. NS consumes 1.2 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity each year, which is the equivalent of 1% of the Netherlands' electricity consumption, or the total electricity consumption of all the households in Amsterdam. I have just signed up with EON at 9.4p per Kwh, It is common for major companies to claim they use renewable or carbon-free power only, on the grounds of green certificates. I cant help feeling that inexperienced power traders at NS will have been taken to the cleaners at the expense of passengers. That's something. The Same Reason You Would Study Anything Else, The (Mostly) Quantum Physics Of Making Colors, This Simple Thought Experiment Shows Why We Need Quantum Gravity, How The Planck Satellite Forever Changed Our View Of The Universe. Established 1983. For example, in 2015, Burlington, Vermont, became the first city to announce it was running totally on renewable power. Produced at least 3 models of outputs 100, 200, 250kW. At a good wind site, the energy payback day could be in three years or less; in a poor location, energy payback may be never. Apparently Eneco can make the wind blow to order.). https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/5329/Bothi_BEEThesis.pdf;sequence=1, When wind power is fed into a grid it becomes inextricably mixed with all the vibrating electrons from other generation sources to the point where there is no way of knowing where any power taken from the grid came from.. But of course even two-thirds of the NS system doesnt run completely on wind power. [18], In the first week of December 2016, all 150 turbines of the new 600 MW Gemini offshore windfarm began producing power, and the project is expected to be fully commissioned by mid 2017. According to Eneco, the power used by the carriers comes from newly built wind farms in the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Belgium. It becomes inextricably mixed with all the electromagnetic waves of the other. It is 100% powered by electric. Since Lithuania has a chronic power shortage the flow normally goes North-South. We do something like this California with biogas. Offsets. For offshore wind a new system of tendering is under development. Smaller turbines are often used for off grid, bespoke and community power internationally. Conductor rails carry lower voltages than overhead wires, although low is a relative concept. So technically, the government is not paying for the FITs.. All Dutch electric trains are now powered by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said . I did not say wind energy is Idiot Power.". Hinkley C will have a footprint of 165 acres when operational and an equivalent footprint for onshore windturbines would be from 160,000 to 490,000 acres (dependent on power of turbines available) to produce the same power output over a year. Many of the numerous smaller and older wind farms in the Netherlands consist of much smaller turbines compared to those typically deployed today. The electrons essentially vibrate in place at 60 Hz. * Just an FYI, this official infographic shows that the scheme saves 1.4 billion kWh of electricity, which they say is the same as whats used by ALL of Amsterdams residents. And meanwhile the Netherlands electrified railways continue to be powered dominantly by fossil fuel electricity. Its own wind farms, built in the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, and Sweden, aim to generate enough energy to fulfill NS's demand of about 1.4 terawatt-hours for 2017 (enough to power a million . 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